


Michael and Rich's Fireside Chats

by MiloThePsychonaut



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-23
Updated: 2017-06-23
Packaged: 2018-11-18 03:44:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11283084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiloThePsychonaut/pseuds/MiloThePsychonaut
Summary: Rich and Jeremy are roommates in the hospital and Michael comes by to see his friend. Since Jeremy is out cold Michael only has Rich to talk to. And talk he does.





	Michael and Rich's Fireside Chats

**Author's Note:**

> I know most people wanna write about everyone making out, and more power to you guys, but I'm a loser who has a thing for character development and couldn't help thinking about when Rich tells Jeremy "He's been by a ton". I figured the two must have had to spend some time together. So I wrote it.

Michael walked into the hospital waiting room, Bob Marley music blaring through his headphones. He awkwardly stood in front of the doors until a woman behind him aggressively poked him. He pulled his headphones from over his ears. She glared at him.  
 _“Excuse me?”_  
He moved out of her way, and followed her with his eyes. She went up to a desk at the front and asked the woman behind the counter something. The woman smiled and told her something back, while handing her a sticker. The woman placed the sticker on her shirt and went through the double doors on her right.   
Michael stood in the corner of the waiting room a bit longer. He doesn’t like talking to people, but it was starting to look like he was going to have to. He sighed, and followed her path to the front desk. The receptionist smiled at him.   
“Can I help you?”   
“Yeah, uh,” he put his hands in his pocket. “I’m here to see my friend.”   
“What’s their name?”   
“Jeremy Heere.”   
The woman typed something onto her computer. Another sticker was printed out and handed to him.   
“Room 112, right through those doors” she smiled brightly. Michael took the sticker and thanked her awkwardly. He was relieved when the interaction was over. He placed the sticker on his jacket, making sure he wasn’t covering up any of his patches.   
Room 112 wasn’t too far down the hall. He opened the door slowly. The first thing he saw was a full body cast. For a second, Michael freaked out that it might be Jeremy, but this person was way too short.   
“Oh, hey.” Michael recognized that voice. He froze.   
“Wrong room” he mumbled, closing the door.  
“No! You’re here for Jeremy, right?” Michael paused. “I’m his roommate!” Michael opened the door again. Sure enough, there was a second bed, just behind a curtain.   
Michael walked past Rich without a word. He pushed the curtain back. Jeremy was asleep. Michael sighed, grabbed a chair, and pulled the curtain back just enough so he could watch his friend.   
“He’s been asleep all day.” Rich said. _Has he always had that lisp?_  
Michael sat there for a while just staring at his friend. He made a mental note to bring his Gameboy next time.  
“You’re he best friend, right?” Rich asked.   
Michael didn’t answer. He didn’t like talking to popular kids, they’d use anything you said against you. It was best to avoid them.  
“Hey,” Rich said expecting a response. When he didn’t get one, he continued anyway, “I’m sorry about the backpack thing. My squip told me to do it, and everything he said just made so much sense, ya’know? He was pretty persuasive.”   
Michael stood up quickly. “I’m leaving.”  
“Woah, I wasn’t trying to be mean! I really am sorry!”  
“I’ll be back later.” Michael assured him, though he wasn’t entirely sure why.

And he did come back later that day. He opened the door, focusing directly on Jeremy. He still seemed to be asleep.  
“Hey! You’re back!” Rich said with a smile.  
Michael walked past him once more and sat next to Jeremy again.   
“Can I ask you a question?” Rich tried to look over at Michael, but his casts were making it difficult.   
Michael turned his head towards the boy and waited.   
“Did Jeremy defeat the Squip?”   
“Yeah, he did.” Michael smiled at his friend. He was hero. Although he didn’t look very heroic drooling on his pillow. Michael pushed his head back some so he wasn’t laying in it.  
“I thought so.” Rich tried to nod, “I was just lying here and suddenly I felt this HUGE pain. I mean, I kind of feel pain all over right now, but this time it was in my head!” Michael looked at his casts. “Then suddenly, my squip was just GONE!” he looked down at the floor, “And my lisp came back too.”  
 _Oh, that explains it._ Michael thought to himself.   
“I’m just happy that he’s gone! You don’t realize how good having your own thoughts is until you don’t. Ya’know?”   
Michael shrugged.   
“How’d Jeremy get his hands on some Mountain Dew Red?”   
“That was actually thanks to me.” Michael felt a small sense of pride in saying that.   
“Really?! Where’d you get it?!”   
“I know a guy” was all he said. He felt a bit of satisfaction knowing that is was his turn to keep someone out of the loop. The guy who used to bully him and his best friend, no less.   
“Man, if only you had been at that party.” Rich said, almost dreamily.   
Michael opened his mouth to say he actually was at the party, but decided he shouldn’t say anything.   
“You probably wouldn’t give it to me anyway.” Rich sighed. “I’m not Jeremy.”   
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Michael felt himself blush.   
“I mean, I assume you got it for him, right? No one just randomly has a drink that expired in the 90s.” Michael had gotten it for Jeremy, but he didn’t want to admit that.   
A nurse came in, and Michael took the welcomed interruption as an excuse to leave. 

The next day he came back holding a 7/11 slushie in his hand. He walked straight past Rich once more. When he sat down next to Jeremy, he took out his Gameboy and turned it on. While he was waiting for his game to load, he watched Jeremy’s breath slowly rise and fall. Rich piped up from the other side of the room.  
“Are you gay?” Michael almost spit out his slushie.   
“What?”   
“I mean, it’s just, the way you look at him, dude.” Rich’s eyes darted to Jeremy, then back to Michael.   
“That’s none of your business.” Michael said, a bit too defensively.  
Rich nodded. There was another long pause.   
“Can I tell you a secret?”   
Michael sighed, but gestured for Rich to continue.   
“I think I might be bisexual.”   
That wasn’t what Michael was expecting. “Bullshit” he said, glaring at the boy.   
“I’m not trying to make fun of you! Honestly!”   
Michael continued to glare at him, but Rich seemed to be telling the truth. “Okay, then why’d you bully Jeremy so much for being gay?” he glanced at his friend. “When he isn’t.” he added.   
“Uh, Squip!” Rich said, wide-eyed. “He told me the most uncool thing you could be was gay, so I had to make fun of someone for it! You guys were just really easy targets.” He stared at the ceiling for a while. “Wow, he really hated the thought of me being not-straight.”   
Michael pursed his lips. “Sucks.”   
“Before I got the squip I checked out guys, but the whole time I thought I just jealous of them or something. I mean, I checked out girls all the time too, so I just assumed my crush on boys was a “You want to be them” instead of “You want to be WITH them”. Then I got my squip and he assured me that must be it. He said once I got with girls I’d forget all about guys.” He looked at Michael, “And I did have sex with a lot of girls. I mean, a l- “  
“I get it” Michael held out his hand in an effort to physically stop this conversation.   
“But now that he’s gone, I’ve been thinking about boys again. So now I’m thinking that maybe he was just blocking those thoughts from my brain or something.”   
Michael remembered something Jeremy said about optical nerve blocking. “Yeah, I guess they can do that”   
“You think so too?” Rich sounded relieved. “Cool.”  
There was another long pause. Michael tried to get through a level of Metroid, but he couldn’t shake the feeling of Rich staring at him. Eventually, he looked over his shoulder to check. Rich was just staring at the ceiling, but when saw Michael looking at him, he took it as an opportunity to continue their very one-sided conversation.  
“Jake’s pretty hot”   
“Excuse me?”   
“I mean, there’s a reason he’s the most popular guy in school. Right? I mean, he does sports and is really good at everything, but it doesn’t hurt that he’s a total hottie too.” He said almost matter-of-factly. “What do you think?”   
“Whatever floats your boat, man.” Michael said, looking back at his game.   
“You’re so in love with Jeremy.”  
Michael spasmed, causing Samus to die. He grumbled under his breath, then glared at Rich.   
“All I’m saying, dude, is that if you weren’t, you have just freaked out right then.”   
Michael got up. “I can’t play my game with you talking so much. I’m coming back later.”   
“Okay!” Rich said, smiling. 

Michael came back later and physically held his hand up to block his view of Rich. Rich still gave him a cheerful hello.   
“Why are you so happy to see me?” Michael said, sounding almost pained by his greeting.  
“It gets really boring in here. I can’t even twiddle my thumbs.”  
Michael thought about it. “That sucks, man”   
“It does!” Rich said, exasperated. “Jeremy still isn’t awake.”   
“Still?” Michael looked at his friend.   
“I don’t know what’s wrong with him, man.”  
Michael took his usual seat. He hadn’t bothered bringing his Gameboy back.   
“Am I talking to much? I feel like you’re being annoyed by me talking too much, but I wanted to make sure. Maybe you just hate people talking in general but also my squip told me that sometimes I would just keep babbling and that people really don’t like that.”   
“It’s a little of both.”  
Rich nodded. “Jeremy does that kind of thing too, right?”   
“Why do you mention Jeremy so much?” Michael asked, sort of annoyed.  
“Cause he’s the only thing you’ll talk about”   
Michael’s eyes widened. He felt like he had just had an epiphany. He didn’t want Rich to know, though, so he slowly lowered his shoulders again and kept his eyes focused on the ground.   
“You’re really anti-social, you know that?”   
Michael put his headphones on, but didn’t play any music. Rich either assumed he hadn’t or just didn’t care that he was ignoring him, because he kept talking.  
“I mean, I didn’t talk to you guys at all when I was cool, ‘cause, ya’know, I was super ultra-cool and you guys weren’t.” Michael rolled his eyes. “But I also didn’t talk to you guys freshman year either, and back then I was a loser too!” Michael took out his phone, and scrolled through some of his songs.  
“I thought about talking to you two, but you were always so absorbed into each other. I couldn’t help but think that if I DID befriend you guys, I’d be your permanent third wheel.” Even if his body couldn’t move, Rich managed to close is eyes in such a way that he still seemed conceited, “I deserve better than that.”  
There was more silence. “How did you guys meet anyway?”   
Michael looked at his friend. “We’ve known each other since kindergarten. He used to cry every morning after his mom dropped him off.” Michael closed his eyes, remembering exactly how little Jeremy looked in the corner covered in tears. “One day we had to do some weird pattern worksheet and the teacher paired us together. So, I asked him why he was always crying.”   
“Why?” Rich asked, super invested in the story.   
“He said he was scared because he was all alone.” Michael mimicked a younger Jeremy.  
“Aww” Rich smiled.   
“I know” Michael said. “So, then I asked him if he wanted to be friends. Then he wouldn’t be alone anymore. And he said yes. And we’ve been besties ever since.”   
“That’s awesome” Rich threw his hand on the pillow. “My longest friendship is probably with Jake. We knew each other in middle school but I didn’t really start talking to him until after I got the squip. He told me the quickest way to get invited to all his parties was to befriend him.”  
“Makes sense.” Michael said passively.   
“My squip told me to ask him how he was doing. At first, he’d just do finger guns,” his body shifted as if he was trying to do the motion before remembering it was restricted, “and say “Yeah, buddy, I’m stellar!”, like he does. But one day he was looking really bad, so I asked him and he said he wasn’t doing stellar.”  
Michael tried not to look like he was interested, but he had never heard this before. Not that he ever cared what went on in the popular kids’ lives, but it was like they were from another planet. It was almost like he was watching a documentary in his basement.  
“So, I asked him what was wrong, and he said his parents were just really neglectful and it was like they didn’t even register that he was there. Which, dude, it just like my family! Only there’s a lot more yelling in my house, his parents are more about whispering in the other room.” Michael nodded. “So, we, like, bonded over our mutual terrible home lives. And then he started hanging out with me. I was invited to all his parties and he brought with him to show me some cool work-out routines.”   
Rich sighed. “I hope he still wants to be friends. Even if I’m not gonna be cool anymore.”  
Michael looked at Jeremy. He had been a total jerk for months. He ignored Michael, even after he specifically told him he wouldn’t. He traded his best friend for a bunch of popular girls that tried to kill him. But Michael couldn’t stay mad at Jeremy. And he could blame all that bad behavior on the squip.   
“He’ll still like you.” Michael said as he stood up. Rich’s eye’s sparkled.  
“See you tomorrow?” he asked.  
“Yeah, see you tomorrow.” Michael put on his headphones and walked out. 

The next day Rich was humming when Michael walked in. He had brought another slushie.  
“Why don’t Jeremy’s parents ever come?”   
Michael looked at his friend. Still asleep. “His Dad is working a lot, but he said he’d come later today” He didn’t mention Jeremy’s mom. Rich didn’t push it.  
Michael sat down at his assigned seat, but today turned himself towards Rich.  
“Hey, remember when I said all that bisexuality stuff?”   
“Yeah?”   
“Well, I was thinking, if my squip did that to me, it probably did it to other people.” Michael took a sip of his drink. “Maybe it was doing that to Jeremy.” Michael’s drink caught in his throat.  
“What?” Michael asked, coughing and holding his chest.  
“Well, he started ignoring you and stuff, right? It’s pretty much impossible that friends as close you two could’ve just completely stopped talking unless Jeremy’s squip was, like, blocking you out or something.”   
“We could’ve just had a really big fight.” Michael looked away while he kept drinking.   
“Yeah, but then Jeremy would’ve been crying about it for days.” Michael begrudgingly agreed. He used to be the only person who knew Jeremy this well. It made him sort of angry that he wasn’t anymore.   
“So, I have this theory. Maybe you were too distracting for Jeremy. Maybe his squip knew that as long as he was with you, he wasn’t going to get any girls. Which begs the question WHY would you keep him from getting girls?”   
Michael still had his lips around his straw, but he wasn’t drinking.   
“And then it hit me! He must’ve been, like, attracted to you in some way! I don’t think he was in love with you- sorry- but I wouldn’t be surprised if he totally jerked off to you at some point.” Rich laughed at that last part.   
Michael felt like he was on fire. He cleared his throat. “I think you’re missing the part where he had a crush on Christine, got a squip because he wanted to go out with Christine, and then used it strictly to get with Christine.” Michael refused to look at his friend, afraid that that might make him blush harder.   
“Yeah, that’s true.” Rich stared at the ceiling. “But if things don’t work out with her, you should totally ask him out.”   
Michael looked all around the room. Anywhere but at Rich. “Why don’t you ask Jake out?” he said, trying to get Rich to shut up.   
Instead, Rich’s eyes lit up. “That’s a great idea!” then his face dulled. “Oh, but I’m pretty sure he’s straight.”   
“Welcome to my world.” Michael took another sip. He wasn’t even going to deny anything anymore, Rich totally had him pegged. It was almost annoying how easily he figured everything out.  
Rich locked eyes with Michael. “If I ask Jake out, you have to ask Jeremy out.”   
“What if Jake says no?”   
Rich shrugged. “Then he says no. I’ll find some even hotter guy.” He smiled as if this was a forgone conclusion.  
Michael sighed. “You’re still forgetting about Christine!” he threw his arms up as he said this. Then quickly pulled them back, looking to see if his movement somehow woke Jeremy up. It hadn’t. He felt both relieved and saddened.   
“I don’t think things will go very far with that girl.”  
Michael looked at him, mentally asking for him to go on. He did.  
“Now, I’m not her best friend r anything, but Christine never talks about sex. She never even wants to make out with anyone. She just wants to talk about drama and make funny noises. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I really doubt that some dude who masturbates as much as Jeremy wants a relationship where he never has sex.”   
“She’s asexual?”   
“Yeah, I think.”  
“Oh.” Michael was done with his drink, so he set it on the table next to Jeremy’s bed.   
“I mean, maybe I’m wrong, but I tried to get with that girl, like, eight times and she always declined my offer. And I think Jake got tired of her never wanting to kiss him so he went back to hooking up with Brooke.”   
“That’s kind of a dick move.” Michael didn’t know why he got so annoyed hearing about people mistreating Christine. It was probably because she meant a lot to Jeremy. Michael looked at his friend again.   
“Yeah, it was.” Rich looked at his feet. “But what I’m saying is she and Jeremy just aren’t super compatible. And when they realize this, you can swoop in like superman and wow him right off his feet.”  
Michael was silent.   
“I give them about a week. A month at the most.”   
“I’m gonna go.”  
“Oh, you’re coming back, right?”   
“Yeah.” Michael stopped in the doorway, “And his Dad is coming too, so don’t talk abot any of this stuff in front of him.”   
Rich smiled. “Gotcha. Pretend I’m doing finger guns.” 

When Michael came back he could hear talking behind the door. He pressed himself against the door.   
“Your squip’s gone? But how?” It was Jeremy! He’s awake!  
“Ask your buddy. Anti-social headphones kid?” Michael hadn’t even realized Rich didn’t know his name. “He’s been by like, a ton, by the way. What is he, your boyfriend? No judgment. Just curious. Totally bi now.” Michael tensed up. He really didn’t want Jeremy to have to answer that question. He opened the door quickly, walking in as confidently as he could manage.   
“I’m sure some special someone will be lucky to have you, Rich.” He said, with a full mental image of who that someone was.   
“You think?” Rich said, smiling.   
Michael pulled his curtain shut. He turned to his friend. Jeremy looked good all things considered. Michael thought about what Rich said.  
“What happened? All I remember is that noise, and...”  
Michael smiled, pushing those thoughts out of his mind. He’ll cross the bridge when he gets there. For now, he was just glad to have his best friend back.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even really ship RichJake, but it fit really well into the story. I guess that's just proof how perfect they are together?


End file.
